Sometimes mock turtle soup is better than none, and Tall, Dark and Handsome, while not Damon Runyon, is close enough to the Master to be pretty satisfying in its own right. Cesar Romero plays a kind-hearted gangster who has cultivated a reputation for ruthlessness, but is in reality so nice a guy he won't even execute his rival's henchmen, so he keeps them in the basement of his lakeside mansion. Sheldon Leonard made his first big splash as Romero's rival, and is quite funny. Milton Berle has a small role in this as well. Charlotte Greenwood is also on hand, and does an elaborate dance number. Director Bruce Humberstone keep things moving at a brisk pace. This is at times a quite funny film if one has a taste for old-time gangster movies, of which this is a parody. Cesar Romero handles the lead role beautifully, and gives what may be his best star performance. I'm amazed that his studio didn't capitalize on his work here, and produce a series for him. Always an amiable player, he often seemed oddly cast at times. His mix of outward guile and inner softness has never been so well-used, and he is a delight in this film.
8 Reviews
Cesar Romero and Sheldon Leonard brighten up good gangster comedy...
Doylenf15 November 2009
CESAR ROMERO is the TALL, DARK AND HANDSOME gent in the title role with VIRGINIA GILMORE, MILTON BERLE, SHELDON LEONARD and CHARLOTTE GREENWOOD in good supporting roles.
The story started seeming familiar to me when I realized it was remade in the '50s as LOVE THAT BRUTE with Paul Douglas and Jean Peters.
The real scene stealer here is STANLEY CLEMENTS, the tough little guy whom Romero gets to pose as his son in order to hire Gilmore as the governess for his "children." The story is completely unpredictable with a wacky sense of humor and some clever plot twists.
It's briskly directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and was a surprise hit at the box-office, even nabbing a nomination for Best Original Script. Plenty of humorous lines and situations, even if none of it is quite believable. A fun film to watch around the holidays.
The story started seeming familiar to me when I realized it was remade in the '50s as LOVE THAT BRUTE with Paul Douglas and Jean Peters.
The real scene stealer here is STANLEY CLEMENTS, the tough little guy whom Romero gets to pose as his son in order to hire Gilmore as the governess for his "children." The story is completely unpredictable with a wacky sense of humor and some clever plot twists.
It's briskly directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and was a surprise hit at the box-office, even nabbing a nomination for Best Original Script. Plenty of humorous lines and situations, even if none of it is quite believable. A fun film to watch around the holidays.
I am pretty sure most mob bosses are just this nice....
planktonrules6 July 2017
While he is billed sixth, I think the real star of this picture was young Stanley Clements as 'Detroit' Harry! Clements' character was a hilariously terrible little juvenile delinquent and based on this worldy-wise and smart-mouthed character, I can understand why Monogram Studios decided to use him for a replacement when Loe Gorcey left the Bowery Boys late in their run. The series was nearly dead...but Clements did as good a job as he could as a guy much like Gorcey's character. I say watch the film for him alone...though overall it's a fun little gangster comedy.
Cesar Romero is Shep...a gangland boss who is very elegant and nice. How nice? It turns out he simply doesn't have the heart to kill his enemies and he keeps them all in a small jail he's had built in his basement! If his rival, Willie (Sheldon Leonard) finds out he's just a softy down deep, Shep will be pushing up the daisies. But, he might anyway when Willie decides to court Shep's fiancé! What comes of all this? See the film.
The script is funny and clever and the characters memorable. It's among Romero's better films and a nice little sleeper comedy anyone could enjoy.
Cesar Romero is Shep...a gangland boss who is very elegant and nice. How nice? It turns out he simply doesn't have the heart to kill his enemies and he keeps them all in a small jail he's had built in his basement! If his rival, Willie (Sheldon Leonard) finds out he's just a softy down deep, Shep will be pushing up the daisies. But, he might anyway when Willie decides to court Shep's fiancé! What comes of all this? See the film.
The script is funny and clever and the characters memorable. It's among Romero's better films and a nice little sleeper comedy anyone could enjoy.
A gangster with a heart
jotix10014 March 2009
This 1941 film was shown recently at a local cable channel. Not having seen it before, we took a chance that paid off in many surprising ways. H. Bruce Humberstone directed one of his best films in this enjoyable comedy about gangsters in Chicago. The movie was written by Karl Tunberg and Darrell Ware. The film has a lot going for it.
Best of all was Cesar Romero, as Shep Morrison, he had one of the best roles of his career. He was a versatile man, as he proves with his take on the Chicago mobster with qualities that endeared to many, even his enemies. Virginia Gilmore plays Shep's love interest. A real surprise was Sheldon Leonard, playing a type for whom he was famous in the film industry. Also on hand the great Charlotte Greenwood and Milton Berle in a small part plus a great supporting cast.
This is a light comedy to enjoy by all ages.
Best of all was Cesar Romero, as Shep Morrison, he had one of the best roles of his career. He was a versatile man, as he proves with his take on the Chicago mobster with qualities that endeared to many, even his enemies. Virginia Gilmore plays Shep's love interest. A real surprise was Sheldon Leonard, playing a type for whom he was famous in the film industry. Also on hand the great Charlotte Greenwood and Milton Berle in a small part plus a great supporting cast.
This is a light comedy to enjoy by all ages.
No homicides, no bodies
bkoganbing13 February 2018
From 20th Century Fox's B picture unit comes this little comic gem about a gangster who couldn't kill. Cesar Romero just can't quite bring himself to rub
out rival Sheldon Leonard's many torpedoes sent against him. What he has is
a private jail in the basement of his large estate where he just keeps them prisoners and treated pretty well at that. No homicides, no bodies.
He's also putting on a big campaign to win Virginia Gilmore complete with housekeeper Charlotte Greenwood and borrowed son Stanley Clements. It goes in fits and starts.
Sadly though Sheldon Leonard does kill rivals, but Romero's policy pays off in the end big time. The henchmen for both get some laughs with Milton Berle as Romero's top non-trigger man and Franks Jenks and Marc Lawrence as a pair of Leonard's hoods who benefit greatly from Romero's no homcide policy.
Tall, Dark, And Handsome got a Best Original Screenplay Oscar and I will say this one is most original.
He's also putting on a big campaign to win Virginia Gilmore complete with housekeeper Charlotte Greenwood and borrowed son Stanley Clements. It goes in fits and starts.
Sadly though Sheldon Leonard does kill rivals, but Romero's policy pays off in the end big time. The henchmen for both get some laughs with Milton Berle as Romero's top non-trigger man and Franks Jenks and Marc Lawrence as a pair of Leonard's hoods who benefit greatly from Romero's no homcide policy.
Tall, Dark, And Handsome got a Best Original Screenplay Oscar and I will say this one is most original.
'The Latin from Manhatan' as a handsome, nice, Chicago gangster boss.
weezeralfalfa19 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Cesar Romero certainly fit the title description. He took time out from his Cisco Kid series to star in this quaint spoof on gangster films. I've noticed a distinct pattern in his films that I've seen. When he's in a B film, such this one, he's often the lead male. But when he's in an A film, I've always seen him as the supporting male. That is, he doesn't wind up with the lead female at the end. I suspect fear of ethnic prejudice had something to do with that pattern.......At this point in her career, cute leading lady Virginia Gilmore was mostly in B pictures. She could sing, as demonstrated in this film, making this film a semi-musical. Charlotte Greenwood, could also sing and dance, and played a motherly role in many a film. As in this film, she often gave a sampling of her signature sideways high kick, while dancing. Perhaps she is best remembered as Aunt Eller, in the film "Oklahoma". But, I most remember her in "Down Argentine Way"......As in this film, Sheldon Leonard usually played tough guys. Later, he would become a very successful producer/director of TV series......Milton Berle, who went on to become a household name on TV in the early 50s as a jokester, wasn't very successful in films. He has the rather small part here as Cesar's assistant.......Stanley Clements, as the 15y.o. adopted kid of Cesar, already had the look and sound of a hoodlum, providing periodic humor. This was his first film role. Soon, he would be cast in a few of the "East Side Kids" film series. Later, he would take Leo Gorcey's place as the leader of the last few episodes of "The Bowery Boys". In this film, he has long hair standing straight up, rather like a fright wig.........The screenplay is pretty wacky. It has Cesar, as Shep Morrison, accumulating men he supposedly shot dead, in the jail cell in his basement! This includes 2 men his rival gang leader: Pretty Willie(Sheldon Leonard) sent to kill him. The next time he comes himself and the 2 kingpins agree to stick to separate parts of Chicago. But once Willie finds out that Shep hasn't actually killed anyone, he is emboldened to try again to kill him, as he has many other gangsters. Again, he sends 2 men to do the job. They fake the job, thankful that Shep formerly spared their lives. Shep hides the fact that he is still alive. But, Berle, his assistant, finds out. Shep tells Berle to find an unidentified body in a morgue, and slip his wallet with ID on it! Incredibly, this is good enough to conclude that the body is Shep's! To add insult to injury, Willie's 2 would-be assassins tell police that they were ordered by Willie to kill Shep. Thus, Willie is arrested. But, somehow, he and Shep wind up in the same lavatory, so that Willie now knows that Shep is alive. I'll stop here, and let you discover the ending. There is no real climax, and a number of scenes are stretching plausibility too far...........Virginia Gilmore gets to sing on stage "Hello Ma! I Done it Again". Later, while dancing with Cesar, she sings softly a bit of "Wishful Thinking". Charlotte Greenwood sings "I'm Alive and Kicking", while demonstrating her high kick.
Funny and charming
HotToastyRag6 May 2021
This is such a cute movie, and such a sweet story straight out of the silver screen charm. Starring Cesar Romero as a lovable gangster with a heart of gold, it's set in Chicago in the middle of a turf war between Cesar and rival gangster Sheldon Leonard. With dead bodies popping up around every corner, the police can't pin a thing on either mob boss. It's sheer coincidence that Cesar meets daytime nanny Virginia Gilmore at the mall during Christmastime - and after buying lingerie for a string of his girlfriends. He's charmed by her, but quickly sees she's different from his usual fare; she needs a classy approach. So, he thinks up a quick lie: he's a father in desperate need of a nanny. Cesar's funny sidekick, Milton Berle, and his goofy pal, Charlotte Greenwood, are recruited to back up his lie. They find an orphan child, fill a nursery with toys, and hope for the best.
I'm an old movie buff, and before Cesar Romero's time as Star of the Week on Hot Toasty Rag, I'd never heard of this one. It's so cute, and so funny; I highly recommend it. Cesar looks absolutely gorgeous, so it's no wonder Virginia falls for him so quickly. And he's hilarious, as always. "You dance like a professional," a floozy coos after cutting in on him and Virginia. "So do you," Cesar replies, slipping an insult past the censors. It's a laugh a minute, and with a cute twist: nine years later Hollywood made a word-for-word remake starring Paul Douglas in Love That Brute, and Cesar Romero played the Sheldon Leonard part.
I'm an old movie buff, and before Cesar Romero's time as Star of the Week on Hot Toasty Rag, I'd never heard of this one. It's so cute, and so funny; I highly recommend it. Cesar looks absolutely gorgeous, so it's no wonder Virginia falls for him so quickly. And he's hilarious, as always. "You dance like a professional," a floozy coos after cutting in on him and Virginia. "So do you," Cesar replies, slipping an insult past the censors. It's a laugh a minute, and with a cute twist: nine years later Hollywood made a word-for-word remake starring Paul Douglas in Love That Brute, and Cesar Romero played the Sheldon Leonard part.
Engaged to the mob.
mark.waltz21 April 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Movie makers loved burlesquing gangsters, their wacky way of talking ripe for ridicule and spoofing. This wacky comedy with a few song and dance numbers seems like something that Damon Runyeon may have written, or whoever took on the windy city in dime store novels, focusing on the boss of the south side (Cesar Romero) whose rivalry with fellow kingpin Sheldon Leonard threatens his future. Romero wants to clean up his image so he "adopts" young tough kid Stanley Clements (excellent in his film debut) and hires Virginia Gilmore to be his nanny. There's a second son never seen, apparently away at camp, a forgotten little detail.
Gilmore's very funny, not exactly loving kids, telling a little girl with a handkerchief to blow her brains out. She finds out quickly what Romero does (through streetwise Charlotte Greenwood who pretended to be his housekeeper) yet ends up engaged to him, performing in his nightclub and also winning the affections of Leonard which she doesn't want. Milton Berle doesn't have much to do other than drop wisecracks and act drunk, a waste of his talent.
Lots to like in this though, one of the best of the mob spoof comedies, an A lister from Fox that deservedly got an oscar nomination for a screenplay. Greenwood is funny, wise and touching, and Gilmore gets one of her better roles, doing much more than just be window dressing. Romero is about as dangerous as a Bowery Boy, but classy and funny, and Leonard pleasantly dimwitted. But it's Clements who gets top praise in this, absolutely wonderful in every way. The remake, "Love That Brute", is worth seeing too.
Gilmore's very funny, not exactly loving kids, telling a little girl with a handkerchief to blow her brains out. She finds out quickly what Romero does (through streetwise Charlotte Greenwood who pretended to be his housekeeper) yet ends up engaged to him, performing in his nightclub and also winning the affections of Leonard which she doesn't want. Milton Berle doesn't have much to do other than drop wisecracks and act drunk, a waste of his talent.
Lots to like in this though, one of the best of the mob spoof comedies, an A lister from Fox that deservedly got an oscar nomination for a screenplay. Greenwood is funny, wise and touching, and Gilmore gets one of her better roles, doing much more than just be window dressing. Romero is about as dangerous as a Bowery Boy, but classy and funny, and Leonard pleasantly dimwitted. But it's Clements who gets top praise in this, absolutely wonderful in every way. The remake, "Love That Brute", is worth seeing too.
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